Musings of a Skeptic Oslerphile

So What If Peter Roebuck WAS Gay?

I logged in to check if I had any comments or mails to moderate or reply to and I was hugely shocked to see this on the stats tab of the blog:

Initially I had thought that the spike of visits was because of this post I wrote about my experience of theAIIMS PGMEE this Sunday, but I was being naïve! I was feeding the mass frenzy that sought the salacious gossip on one of the best thinkers cricket has or will know. I do not condone any act of sexual predation or underage sexual exploitation, but come on people, in 2001 he was convicted of hitting the 3 kids with whips on their butts. And though there was a LOT of speculation on him exploiting them, there were no substantial proof and none of the 3 boys even went ahead to charge him with sexual aggression.

So what if he was gay? There were a lot of rumors flying around him ever since his playing days, but I thought we had come to an era where being gay was no longer considered to be a crime. And I thought we believed in sexual choice, emancipation and right to express the choice! So, on the day of his demise, let us not let these cheap media thrills take our attention away from the fact that the game has lost one of its sharpest critics, one of its most honest analysts and someone who did not hesitate to call a spade a spade.

This reminds me a little aboutAlan Turing (brilliant website: worth spending the time there). Well, he was a brilliant Mathematician who was one of the key personalities behind the cracking of the Enigma codes the Germans used. (Popcult reference: The Oxford Murders, an engaging movie, has a passing reference to him). He was also gay.

In 1952 he was arrested on charge of being a homosexual. And in 1954 June, when he was handed a choice between chemical castration and a prison sentence, he decided to end his life. He committed suicide by consuming cyanide, probably in an apple or something, if I remember right.

Once again, I hope to write about Turing some day (I know I am due to write about Trendelenburg before that!) and outline some of his thoughts in Biology. yes, he was one of those rare people who worked in Biology and Mathematics, both.

Anyways. I believe this post is going to bring some more people looking for salacious details on Peter Roebuck’s gay romp with underage children, but I will kindly request the reader to refrain from this line of discussion at least for a few days. After all:

lolol, such a useless article. he was charged for sexual assault which he knew he committed. and was too weak live the consequences. there is nothing wrong in being gay, but what amazes me is that the ‘rookie’ author mises the whole point about the assault. also he caned the 3 boys, thats fine, but then he wanted to look the marks. he wanted to see the bare ass of these 3 boys and probably enjoy his ruthlessness. I WAS a fan of his writing however now i am sickened by his reality. it all makes sense why his family is not fond of him too. This is just one case that has come to light from pressure of the boys girlfriend to get him to go to police. I wonder how many more poor african youngsters he has exploited like this. IT MAKE SICK. reminds me of thailand. its good atleast we have one less demon in this world.

Seriously, if any sexual assault could be levelled against him, he would have been reeled in by the judges. I do not condone any act of sexual violence against anyone. But keep this in mind: he helped hundreds, if not more, of young, poor people from the Africas. How come nobody else levelled such charges before? And DEMON? Seriously? Any proof of that?

@pranab: No one has any issues with his being gay. He obviously did becuase he admitted it to no one if was indeed gay. I think most people are concerned that he may be a sexually deviant character regardless of his preference.

@pranab (one of your comments) He was reeled in by the judge. The judge said: “It was not appropriate to administer corporal punishment to boys of this age in circumstances such as these. It seems so unusual that it must have been done to satisfy some need in you.

Roebuck got off on a minor charge because he pleaded guilty. Even if we go by the lesser charge, caning young kids that he was trying to help is more than a little weired. I think my concern goes to the kids and not to this convicted (yes he got a 4 month suspended jail sentence) offender. Generally where there is smoke there is fire. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that one is unlikely to jump out a window if he was framed. If I was a betting man, I would bet that some serious depraved stuff is going to come out in good time.

go and search on google pranab, and looks like u have edited ur post (article) EPIC FAIL!!. also if you post such stuff then be ready to accept the praise or criticism you receive from others. dont be so defensive, its too noobish. or you should do better research before you post. also ur comments on physicians are ridiculous, TOUCHY LOL makes me laugh. i am sure it is just touchy when a fag like Roebuck pounces on a poor african male. he has devalued education and trust of many african kids. also what u said about his allegations he accepted them himself again i come to the point of better research. plus Vijit said the exact same thing as i did. but your inept brain fails to comprehend the message. thats why you cannot understand the fact that he was ashamed that his true image was gonna come out in the media so he was weak and jumped. also it doesnt take an einstein to figure it out. when his entire day had gone well why would he all of a sudden jump when cops came to his room to detain him. its a waste of my time to explain to someone like you, i can see your image and i am sure you would enjoy is he pounced on ur faggoty ass. so go ahead and celebrate a man who has taken advantage of poor african males. also use ur brain a little it is africa where he stays, you could find 1000’s who would be willing to be sodomized so the could receive education and food. i am sure something else is gonna come out, something very dark, i felt very bad when i first heard the news of his death cos i liked his writings. but now the story is different, why was he so desperate to speak to the children in his home, why not he set up a separate hostel for them. why not start a charity, why only do private financing. the irregularities are way too many, also ur from india then i am sure your totaly okay with all the corrupt politicians who have evaded the judiciary system, as the allegations only remained allegations. anyways kid i am not gonna waste anymore time on explaining to you what i think. but you better understand that if you start a blog be ready for posts by random users, dont start pms’ng if someone doesnt like your writing. also i advise you to change your photo you look poorer than the african youth Roebuck tried to rape. you want a proof of roebuck being a demon??? LOLOL idiot understand the message dont ask for proof of stupid crap, i bet your gonna reply to this what is the proof that you are an idiot??isnt it?? goodbye kid. post and reply to urself from now. but dont feel bad the roebuck didnt select you for his sexual escapades. bye. “i bet u will delete or edit this message”

@Vijit thanks for the balanced view. I totally agree with you on the fact that caning 19/20 year old boys is not a normal thing to do, but he came u through the English system where corporal punishment was still very much a part of disciplining students. These days people are way too touchy when it comes to sex offense. For example, as a physician, one has to be VERY careful what they say. I have seen it happen that something that a physician said or did was misconstrued to ridiculous extremes. This especially is more sensitive in Pediatrics where the threshold for bringing sexual allegations is very very low.

The judge is free to conclude that the thing may have been done to satisfy some deep seated urge in him, but there is no proof for the same. Or he would not have got off with just 4 months of suspended sentence. Trust me on this.

And finally, as and when the dirty stuff comes up, let us maul him for that THEN. I do not, for a moment, think it normal that he committed suicide in the middle of a sex assault investigation. All I am saying is that until he is proved to be guilty of these crimes, what is the harm in celebrating the life of the man rather than demonizing the last few moments people will remember him by?

@Vicky R You are a troll. You try to sound like you are not from India, but your IP address has an MTNL tag and locates to Mumbai/Delhi. Hypocrisy. I would make it public here but I don’t really want to breach your privacy. 🙂

I did not edit the article. I wrote another one.

I do not edit or delete comments. As you should know by now. In fact, once I have allowed someone’s comments through, their next comments are up by itself.

Yes, I am poor. Maybe poorer than the African youths. So, yeah, that is that.

Vijit was way more civilized than you in his wording so yes I spent more brain power on his comment.

Faggotty ass? Really? And still you claim to NOT be a homophobe?

I am glad you have decided to take your trollness elsewhere. Good riddance. Have a nice life. And from now on, unless you have anything pertinent to say I won’t be replying to you. Oh and please be warned that in case your comments stay this inflammatory or hate mongering, I WILL delete them.

It’s terrible that he did commit suicide as he is not here to defend himself and will always appear to be in the wrong. It just does not look good to go the way he did with allegations hanging over him and will always overshadow any good he did in his life. He must have been in a terrible place.
Sadly, Suicide is a very permanent solution to a temporary problem.

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Pranab Chatterjee

Skeptic Oslerphile, Public Health Specialist and Program Manager, Translational Global Health Policy Research Cell, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India; Scientist, Indian Council of Medical Research, National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases. Past: Senior Research Associate, Public Health Foundation of India. Interests include: Emerging Infections, Public Health, Antimicrobial Resistance, One Health and Zoonoses, Diarrheal Diseases, Medical Education, Medical History, Open Access, Healthcare Social Media and Health2.0. Opinions are my own!
View all posts by Pranab Chatterjee

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